Kabbalistic perspective on God

[Metatron]

Hey Leo,

I am Tamás, from Hungary. It happens that I have been studying traditional Kabbalah since 2009. I thought that it might be good to share the kabbalistic perspective on God.

First and foremost the wisdom of Kabbalah states that God is the creating, giving force in nature. God and Nature is the same according to Kabbalah. However it also says that humanity is the receiving (selfish) force, therefore there is difference in forms between God and its creature. This difference in forms is described as “Shechina in the dust”. Which means that the state of humanity cannot let God to be seen - the creator is hidden.

This stealth mode of the creator can only be reversed if the creature himself changes in form, and the desire - which is the building matter of the creature - clothes into giving. This would mean that he receives in order to give. When this metamorphosis happens, the creature is capable to experience the Creator through his equivalence of form. But first, it must change and give up its selfishness. This change happens in the heart, as a different attitude to life and only is possible for those, who have a giving point in the heart and therefore strive to change for the better.

There is a prayer, called the ‘prayer of the many’, which is a desire in the heart for all the humanity to rise into correction. This prayer of the many is told (performed) regularly amongst kabbalah students, and is transformed into unconditional love for humanity.

There is also a concept of ‘Lishma’ and ‘Lo Lishma’. ‘Lishma’ is when we want to change for the better just to give contentment to the Creator. It is preceded with a state of ‘Lo Lishma’, meaning ‘Not Lishma’ when we want to change in order to receive a better state for ourselves, but still striving to be more unselfish. And there is the state which is neither Lishma, nor Lo Lishma, when we want to change for the better only for our own benefit.

The Creator is only visible when we are in Lishma.

So, it is not as easy to see God, as to see our own hand and say, ‘it is God’. We are in difference in forms, and only capable to see ourselves as God when we are truly unselfish. This require serious dedication and purely meditation would not bring us into this state. We must nurture our desire to be selfless and grow it to bloom.

When growing into giving, the creature goes through 125 steps on spiritual attainment (light and dark states changing respectively) where he travels through 5 worlds that are embedded into reality. In the end it reaches the world of Ein Sof (world of infinity) and receives personal final correction. In this state he/she helps for the whole humanity to rise into unconditional love.

Leo, I would be really interested in reading your remarks to this content described above. Please regard this as one perspective from the many mystic perspectives…

All the bests, Tamás.

[How to be wise]

@Metatron Thank you for sharing.

[Metatron]

@How to be wise the pleasure is mine

[Leo Gura]

@Metatron I'm aware of Kabbalah.

Yes, it is one spiritual system out of many.

I do not consider it the best system because it is overly complex, conceptual, and textual. It also has dogmas and lacks and integral view of all the other spiritual traditions.

On 2/3/2019 at 10:14 AM, Metatron said:

So, it is not as easy to see God, as to see our own hand and say, ‘it is God’. We are in difference in forms, and only capable to see ourselves as God when we are truly unselfish.

Don't let that become a limiting belief. You can spend a lifetime trying to perfect yourself and master your emotions, which is a seperate matter from consciousness of God. There is overlap between those two, but they are not the same.

The classic problem of all orthodx religons is that they try to make a person "good", "loving", or selfless without actually attaining ego-death. Which is very backwards and ends up creating a lot suffering, guilt, judgment, and repression.

I would seperate morality from becoming conscious of God. God does not require you to be a good person. God only requires that you are conscious of what is true.

The core problem is, you are incapable of being selfless until you awaken. And even then, it will be tricky.

Just don't be an asshole, and that should be good enough. And then shoot for ego-death.

[How to be wise]

@Leo Gura I have to disagree with you Leo. I have been doing The Work for several months, and as I release my emotional blockages, I find myself having many enlightenment experiences. I have become hugely disidentified from my body, and have become conscious of many facets of the absolute. I have a permanent awareness that nothing other than my direct experience exists. 

If you are right, how do you explain my progress?

[Leo Gura]

@How to be wise You are practicing a form of consciousness work. That is great. That is helpful.

What I was speaking against is orthodox religious approaches, which try to get you to be a "good and moral person".

The Work has nothing to do with being a "good person". In fact, it's the opposite. It's about accepting evil and your own inadequacies.

The key is that you need to become conscious of how much you judge things and reject things, and stop doing that.

You must recognize that good and bad have no place in consciousness work. The truth is neither good nor bad. Good and bad are always actions of the ego-mind. Stop thinking of anything as good or bad. Become more interested in what is.

[Jkris]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

@How to be wise 

The Work has nothing to do with being a "good person". In fact, it's the opposite. It's about accepting evil and your own inadequacies.

You must recognize that good and bad have no place in consciousness work. 

@Leo Gura  does this mean enlightened persons can be concious of their immoral and evil nature and indulge in the same with out any pricking of moralality ethics and cheat harm others accepting that as their nature and inadequacy?  

So its just about getting rid of sense of me? 

Is it not about complete transformation of mind as well? No annihilation of bayd nature and habbits  aka vasanas as told by Ramana maharishi? 

Edited February 6, 2019 by Jkris
Wanted to add user

[Leo Gura]

@Jkris The enlightened person realizes that morality is an illusion. There is no such thing as evil. You are making it up.

Everything that happens in the Universe is Good, by definition.

You can clean up your "bad habits" of course. But that doesn't make you a "good" person.

You are simply free to be however you want. There is really no alternative. You will be you regardless of what you do.

[Metatron]

@Leo Gura Thanks for your remarks.
Actually in the last few years I strived to undo my previous judgements and radically stop comparing my life with others. I learned how to be happy along when seeing someone thrive. I know that the universe is good by default. Kabbalah does not state it otherwise. 'God is Good and does good.' and another kabbalistic statement is: 'There is no one besides Him.' These sentences perfectly fit to the view you are presenting.

The whole ocean reflects in the drop - I am the whole and I am the drop (like a holographic embedment). This realization is Godliness. This is the truth however one cannot realize this before undoing his judgements and being in the constant state of mercy. Not judging equals being good. And this is not a moral question.

Praying for everyone reaching Godliness is also beneficial, because with this prayer done regularly the universe becomes my greatest ally in reaching my own salvation. The evil who I conquered was my own inclination to do things to harm others. Not an outside force, however my feelings had reflections in the other world, and I know that most of the people don't experience this inclination to harm in themselves. Most people never met evil.

I met my own evil side, and I triumphed over it thanks to Kabbalah. Anyway, there is much to improve yet on my life, perfection is never reached. By your videos I usually learn to put my own experiences into a slightly different perspective. There is much to learn, but I generally feel that I know nothing and I am nobody. (It is far from the truth that I know nothing, but the illusion is perfect.) I am thankful for being nobody, because as you told in an old video, the one of ten things that I want but I don't know that is actually I want to be nobody.

Actually I am a huge fan of Actualized.org, and if my time shedule let me I would translate all your videos to Hungaran. (There are some subtitles I have already done.) I always try to realize your advise of not being an asshole, but it is tough - I can be a true an asshole sometimes.  I am striving though.

[Anton Rogachevski]

Amazing to witness how similar spiritual paths are in completely diffrent cultures. I guess "difference" is a concept after all.